"Summer" of Baseball discussion

So, I'm finally reading Shoeless Joe, after years of hearing people talk about it. I don't like it as much as I expected to. It's style stuff that bothers me, not the story, which I like. It's odd analogies/similes like this one (from page 27):

"Oh that," she says, as if it hadn't been on her mind too, crowding her senses like a fat lady squeezing into the check-out line.

What does that mean?

I also think the character Annie is a bit of a cliche--the totally supportive, implausibly hot wife, whose entire life, since she was a teenager, has been devoted to supporting the whims of her essentially ordinary husband. This is a boring fantasy.

But I'm not done reading yet. I could still change my mind. Why do you like Shoeless Joe?

Well, now that you mention it, I have no idea why I like the book so much, and have recommended it over the years. I think it was the weirdness of Salinger popping up--I know I was sad when it wasn't him (THAT would have been somethin') in the movie (though the movie generally stank). I guess I never thought about the wife character--I was identifying with the guy 100%. Maybe that's why the movie didn't work for me--because it wasn't 1982 any more and I was thinking differently?

Now you're going to make me question The Natural, too, aren't you? I read it in high school, liked it, hated the movie (Robert Redford just should not make books-to-film).

I think we'll have to take it as a given that there few great feminist baseball books. What about the Doris Kearns Goodwin thing?

I agree that the weirdness is what is best about the book. Not only the Salinger story, but the constant switching between mundane daily details and wildly implausible events, all told in the same tone.

As far the movie, I remember liking it a lot when I first saw it years ago, but I watched it again more recently and I didn't feel like it lived up to my memory. They're showing it in the park right near my house in August, and I'll probably go see it again.

I haven't read The Natural--it is definitely on the list. I like alternating between fiction and nonfiction, so I was thinking this one might be next: Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game

But I don't know anything about the Doris Kearns Goodwin book, which looks interesting:


I have not read any of her books, and only know her from Meet the Press and The Daily Show...

I liked the book, but I did a lot of skimming of the parts about the wife, and the Salinger bits took a while to adapt to. I thought the descriptions of Iowa were lovely, and reminded me of home. I also liked this:

"Cops, taxi drivers, and cocktail waitresses will tell you about the full moon: a time when the most docile little wino runs amuck, tossing off twice his weight in blue uniforms; when college students scream through cities, writing on walls; when sedate businessmen drink until they vomit on linen tablecloths; when wives shoot husbands and husbands shoot wives; when little old ladies report lost cats and strange men under their beds. From dark doorways, priests hiss at hookers when the moon is full. And housewives have fearsome attacks of manic energy and shred their underclothes in the blender."

which is so Bradbury.

I thought of Chandler--The housewives bit made me feel, specifically, it was a reference to that famous passage about the Santa Anas. The thing about this though is that while I agree with you that the writing is lovely, saying that "people act crazy during a full moon" is the definition of unimaginative.

Also, I mostly found the idea of shredding underclothes in a blender sort of confusing. I think I just don't get what it means.

Also, read the comments on the Shoeless Joe review on my profile for more commentary:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I'm not sure why it's there, but it's a Summer of Baseball conversation.

This thread has made me really...frustrated, but in a good way (what is the word for this feeling, like working on a good puzzle). Most of the participants seem to agree that Shoeless Joe has a lot of problems. Your point about the full moon is a perfect example. You're so right. And yet...a lot of us seem to really like it, and aren't quite sure why. Bill (on your profile thread) made some great points about his love of the book, but I'm not sure they coincide with my own. So why, then, did I like it?

Hi, I'm fairly new to GoodReads, but I love reading baseball books. Shoeless Joe was pretty good, but not WP Kinsella's best work. I suggest reading The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. It is equally as weird as Shoeless Joe, but I found it to be a very compelling read.

I have been wanting to read the IBC! I have to read The Natural first, but hopefully soon. Thanks for the recommendation!

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy is my favorite. It is hard to explain why I like W.P. Kinsellas books but I do.

An impressive amount of IBC is on Google books for preview if anyone wants to test the waters before finding their own copy:

http://bit.ly/qqJHjI